Indoctrination
by BakaMondai
Summary: Dumbledore proclaimed as he left young Harry on the porch of the Dursley's to the small child he had doomed, "I am sorry" before placing wards that around the home that would restrict the use of any magical attempts used on the premises, stopping both magical creatures and children. Minor insignificant changes cause ripples that shake Harry's world. Eventual Slash.
1. Chapter 1

When June arrived, Harry found that cupboard was exactly as he had left it, dark, cold, and filled with the musty smell of a ten year old boy. Harry had barely been able to believe that it had been a year since he had seen it, but since he had returned to Privet Drive number four they had become distinctly reacquainted. As far as he could tell, Professor McGonagall had sent Aunt Petunia a letter that informed the perfectly normal Dursley's that Harry had an awful knack for getting into trouble, thank you very much, and that as a student Harry did not have the right to practice magic during the summer. Their grins, Vernon's in particular, had been absolutely feral.

They were quick to shove him into the confined space underneath the staircase, stripping him of the extra upstairs bedroom and were savage in wringing every drop of usefulness from the boy during the summer. Petunia had evidently found the workload she granted Harry everyday unsatisfactory, and had had to hire a gardener and maid in order to maintain the house. This meant that Harry was blamed for the expense. The only positive thing about this set of affairs would be the extreme amount of time Harry had that he was able to dedicate to thinking, just as the small child mulling over dirty dishes was now.

He thought of his last year at Hogwarts, and of the friends he thought he had made during it, and of course, of the friendship he had rejected with Draco Malfoy. Ron and Hermione occupied his thoughts infrequently, mostly for self pity. Neither had written him all summer long despite the connection he thought the three of them had formed during their first year of Hogwarts. While the quiet voice inside him whispered that it was okay, that his two best friends were simply busy, it was also very true that Harry was disappointed.

He sighed and rested the cleaned dish on the counter, and tried to rephrase that thought, because it sounded whiny and- well- needy. He wasn't disappointed persay, just lonely and tired of being at Privet Drive. Yes, he thought as he drained the sink of soapy water, that sounds much much better. And perhaps, to him, it did.

"Boy! Are the flowerbeds weeded? The Mason's will be here tonight and everything must be perfect for Vernon's dinner." Petunia's shrill voice resonated down from the second floor.

" Yes, Aunt Petunia!" Harry yelled back rolling his eyes. The flowerbeds were always the first thing he did, as Aunt Petunia watched them like a hawk, and would know if he tried to skimp on them at least once. Besides, outside work was always better in the morning versus now, where he might die from dehydration if he tried to go out and do manual labor in the June heat.

"What about dinner then? Dessert?" she said quieter as she walked down the stairs in a white bathrobe and green face mask with her hair in purple curlers. "Dudley will be home in half an hour or so and Vernon at half past four. The Mason's at five... You do remember, right?"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia. Dinner is in the oven, and dessert will be ready just before Uncle Vernon is home." he rolled off the answers to everything she asked.

"Hmpf." his aunt snorted, moving back up the staircase to finish getting ready for the Mason's," well, it better impress them boy, or it's Vernon you'll have to deal with this time."

"Of course"

Harry resumed his place at the sink, rinsing the remainder of his cookware before stowing it away underneath the cabinets, his skin crawling with reminders of the last time Vernon truly had to deal with him. It had been before Harry realized he was a wizard, though he had only known for a year now. Still he tended to think of the time as Before his letter and After his letter.

He had been trying to escape Dudley and his friends who were playing the game Harry Hunting, which unfortunately consisted of Harry running until he was caught and suffering their punches, or hiding until the bullies got tired of looking. That time he had sought to hide in the garbage bin behind the school, but somehow miraculously, had ended up atop the school roof.

At the time, Harry had been understandably confused. He had ended up somewhere he had absolutely no right to be and had absolutely no way to get down, as the door to the roof was locked from the inside. Harry had had to wait until the school noticed him missing and someone found him, which resulted in the Dursley being called.

The Dursley hated many things, but Harry making trouble for them was probably the worst of them, second only to magic and the magical world. For that alone, he would have received days in his cupboard with nothing to eat or drink, maybe a bathroom break during his confinement, but Dudley had to whisper out as soon as they got into the car," He just appeared on the roof, Mummy. I dunno how he did it, but he did it!"

Vernon's face had gone pale, down to his brown mustache that looked as if it had decided to turn prematurely gray, but outside of that nothing was certain until Harry arrived at Privet Drive number Four and only he and Vernon left the car.

The first strapping Harry had gotten had left welts across his back, sores that seemed to ooze pus and ache like they were on fire. The week he had spent locked in the cupboard afterward had only made his fever worse, and Harry remember little outside the measly protest Petunia had put forth, to which Vernon had responded, "It's time the little freak learned his place, Petunia! I will not have it in my household! I will stamp it out of him!" to which her mild protests has floundered and then altogether halted. He had been nine years old.

Now though, Harry was nearing twelve. He hadn't grown much, as he was kept confined in the dark, and his black hair had only grown shaggier, but he was older, he mused. If not larger, if not smarter, he was at least older.

And as the doorbell rang at five o'clock sharp, Harry folded himself away inside his tiny cupboard and contented himself to the soft, silence of the tiny, dark room. He was confident in the success of his meal, although that didn't mean the deal wouldn't go south. The Dursley's had taught him that some things were beyond his control, and sometimes he would suffer for them.

This was very true as of tonight.


	2. Chapter 2

The shrieking was what startled him awake, a shrill voice that he didn't recognize warbling about a bird. Harry sat up on his cot, banging his head in the process. He knew the voice wasn't Aunt Petunia, but it took a couple moments of listening to the confused mess going on outside the cupboard door in the living room.

"That ruddy bird-," said Vernon's voice

"Get it! Before she screams us all deaf!" Dudley called, cracking what Harry supposed was his smeltings stick on the floor loudly.

"She's absolutely, completely and totally terrified of-"a voice Harry didn't recognise at all, but figured was Mr. Mason. Unfortunately, the screeching and wild commotion of everyone running amok trying to subdue the bird that had apparently attacked Mrs. Mason halted after a loud crash resounded through the house.

There was a tense moment of silence.

"Well,"concluded Mr. Mason,"that is one way to conclude a night. I think my wife and I are ready to leave, Mr. Dursley."

"But you haven't even touched the dessert." Aunt Petunia attempted only to receive a fierce glare in return.

" Ah yes, but as my wife has already experienced an episode volatile enough to leave her unconscious and on the floor, I feel as if I have absolutely no more business with you." A few moments later there was a resounding slam of the front door and the audible crunch of gravel as the Mason's car pulled out of the driveway.

Harry gave Uncle Vernon two minutes top to react after the Mason's had left, drumming his fingers quietly against the side of his cot. Already, only moments after their departure, Vernon was fuming at Petunia, dismissing Dudley, and raging at the bird that had destroyed his business opportunity.

"It's that freaks fault! I know it is! Why would a bird be brought into any normal persons house Petunia! I knew it when we allowed the ruddy thing in that some kind of trouble would be cause and know it's finally happened!" Harry could imagine his uncle's face as he spewed the vitriol at Petunia, a dark, angry purple, and knew that he would soon have to stand up to the man himself when Vernon eventually turned his rage directly upon him . Harry shivered, the man sounded angry enough to beat him again, but Harry never knew for certain, unless-

"I'll just take Dudley and myself to the movies, Vernon. We'll be back in a couple hours. You can have some time to… cool down."

" Harry winced sharply. If there was one thing he could count on Aunt Petunia for, it was knowing when to back down from Vernon and get out of his way. She knew that leaving him with Harry would cool the man down and stop him from taking his anger out on her or possibly Dudley. If she was leaving, then Vernon would feel less constrained, and he would suffer his uncle's belt. It wouldn't be the first time, nor would it be the last.

Vernon yanked him out of the cupboard only seconds after Petunia and Dudley left Privet Drive. The belt was against his back after assuming the position -feet shoulder width apart, back bared, hands firmly on the wall of Dudley's second bedroom, as it had only one small window and was on the second floor- and Vernon lashed him with vigor. Harry counted at first, until the numbers were outweighed by the pain. He usually cried out around thirty, not to soon so Vernon wouldn't think him faking, but not too late as where Vernon would work the belt against his back harder to get the reactions he wanted. This time though, Vernon went past thirty, to forty and fifty, until Harry's back felt like it was made of cuts and bruises and pain. Vernon kept going until Harry's sweaty palms lost their grip and he collapsed onto the floor.

"There boy, that's what you freaks deserve!" He chortled, out of breath, and then his foot came forward and Harry's world exploded into even more pain. "Do you even know how hard we normal folks work for our positions! For our jobs! For our families! I don't think you do, since you're here being a burden."

"This is all your fault!" Vernon finally pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket and threw it down on the floor beside his battered nephew. "Neither I or Petunia care what score you got at your wretched school last year! And on account of your bloody bird, you lost me a great business deal! I will not have it in my house!"

"Your bloody owl is gone! I'll throw it out the moment I'm done discipling you, you little freak! Now get back in your cupboard, before I decide to give you something else to cry about, boy!" Vernon continued before stomping angrily out of the room and either downstairs to the liquor cabinet or to the shed outside where the Dursley's had graciously allowed Harry to keep both Hedwig and his trunk.

The moment Vernon was gone, Harry hoisted himself onto his feet, still aching from the beating, holding the parchment in his fingers. He stumbled a bit as he made his way downstairs, but he knew that when Vernon told him to go to his cupboard to go there immediately. The man most certainly would resume belting him if Harry gave him even the slightest excuse until he was either drunk off his ass or Petunia came home. As Harry had glanced at the clock while in the kitchen, he knew either scenario was likely.

Once safely tucked back into his cupboard, Harry finally allowed himself a peek at the final grades he'd received in each of his classes, although they hadn't been able to take finals at the end of the year. He then snorted. The slip of parchment contained little more than drivel, and the fact that, yes he'd passed his classes, although no, he wasn't the either of the highest ranking students in his year. Sometimes, he wondered why any of it even mattered.


	3. Chapter 3

At his inherited home a short way from Privet Drive itself, was a man bent over a simmering vat of half brewed Dreamless Sleep. It was here Severus Snape felt the sudden inexplicable urge to do something completely and utterly absurd: sneeze. In fact, the hook nosed potion master was so startled by the urge to sneeze, that he was unable to suppress the desire and managed to sneeze straight into his half brewed potion. He then stared, scowling into it, half startled by his lack of control and half upset at the ruined potion.

Taking the ruined potion off the fire and setting aside the remaining ingredients, Severus made his way upstairs and sat grudgingly upon the worn couch in the parlor area, and folded his hands to rest his head on them. Quite honestly, Severus was bored. Two weeks into his self imposed reclusive summer, Minerva and Albus had found themselves too busy to allow him to remain as he almost always did on the grounds of Hogwarts, and so Severus had found himself back in one of the many, many places he never wanted to return to. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so unfortunate if he hadn't had to come here of all places, though.

Here was also known as Spinner's End. The wallpaper peeled in yellow strips, the furniture was worn and sinking deeply into itself, and the carpeting smelled like alcohol in some rooms, cigarettes in others, and like potion ingredients in the rest. Severus, although he was a wizard, found himself quite unwilling to change much of anything inside the sad ugly old home and instead spent most of his time downstairs brewing. He supposed, when he gave himself a moment to consider the reason, that it was because his mother's memory, and his unwillingness to change anything that she had touched.

Tobias wasn't the only one to haunt the house. Severus felt that near every time he tried to change nearly anything in the ugly rotting house, he found himself inexplicably focused on Eileen. Just like now.

The notorious Snape stood up snorting lightly at how ridiculous he was being again and reached for his muggle clothes. Though it was late, he supposed he could resume Dumbledore's solitary task for the summer: watching James Potter's brat of a son.

Snape cursed himself once again for the stupidity in allowing himself to be manipulated by the headmaster yet again. It wasn't enough for the old coot to remove him from Hogwarts for the summer, no the old man had him watching Saint Potter Jr. Fortunately, he only had to check on the brat once every week or so.

Still sucked deeply into his annoyance Severus stalked away from Spinner's completely unprepared for what he would face upon his arrival at Privet Drive Number 4.

Three days. At least, Harry was pretty sure it had been three days. He was making the assumption purely on the number of times cold cans of soup had been tossed into the cupboard from the blinding light in the living room. He had been so sick when Petunia had thrown the first unopened can in that he had thought she was his mother come to rescue him. He'd gotten the can thrown in his face for the trouble.

Harry had only been let out from the cupboard this morning since it was Monday morning and Petunia needed chores done. The freezing cold shower had woken him momentarily from his fever to the agony that his back was. He had stood transfixed by the sores before sinking to the ground and retrieving the rubbing alcohol. His hands were gripping the countertop as he tried to prepare to clean his back when-

"Hurry up, boy!" Petunia's voice shrilled despite the closed bathroom door, "Vernon will be home in a couple hours and I need this house cleaned!"

"Coming Aunt Petunia!" Harry replied quickly before gritting his teeth and pouring the rubbing alcohol down his back. It didn't reach every sore, but Harry still felt like screaming when the dulled pain in his back exploded once more. He bit down hard on the yell that threatened to spill out and tossed on a shirt before exiting the bathroom.

"Took you long enough" Petunia grumbled as he came out.

"Sorry. Won't happen again" Harry mumbled quietly as he followed his aunt downstairs.

"It better not. The only reason you're out of that cupboard is because I can't stand cleaning. Otherwise you would stay in there until Vernon decided you could come out," she paused slightly. "Just start on the flowerbeds. They need to be weeded again since they haven't been looked at since Friday. Afterward, you can do the backyard and then the front. I'll have you finish the laundry before Vernon's home as well. You have four hours or so. Get to it. "

"Yes, Aunt Petunia" Harry replied quickly before making his way out front to tend to the flowerbeds at the front of the house. He knelt down by the roses closest to the window and peered inside as he worked. Merlin, he hates this house.

AN: I am very sorry for the wait but my computer has finally died. Everything now has to be typed on my iPhone which takes forever. Updates will be a lot slower than I like them to be since I have to type on a phone. Sorry


	4. Chapter 4

Harry was unbearably hot. The June sun was beating down on his back and he was sweating bullets. His back was on fire and Harry was wondering absent mindedly whether or not he should be concerned about the gashes becoming infected, or at the least making him greatly ill. He gazed hopelessly at his near completed efforts outside and realized, just as he always had, that worrying about it really wouldn't help his situation.

His stomach then rumbled and he groaned deeply at the gnawing inside his stomach. He hadn't eaten since the soup from this morning and at this point even Petunia's tomato plants started looking edible. He contemplated eating them as bare amusement now, since he had tried once. He had tried to eat a lot of things that simply weren't edible to begin with.

Like grass. Once. The dry heaving and green stomach acid hadn't been worth the short relief he had had from his growling stomach. Well, it had been until he'd puked the whole mess of it up, he supposed. Then he had just hurt more.

" _What are you doing?"_ a small voice called suddenly, startling Harry out of his ruminations. He glanced around, but didn't see anyone, and called out softly, " _Is anyone there?"_

" _A speaker! Magnificent! Magnificent!"_ the small voice crooned loudly before Harry saw it emerge from underneath the brush that concealed it. It was a snake and he seemed very happy with Harry. He crawled quickly over to the boy and rose back to study his face, hissing out quick bursts of " _Excellent!"_ and " _You will do nicely."_

" _Excuse me,"_ Harry said politely, " _but what are you talking about?"_

" _Why you are to be my new person. You must feed me and care for me, as you are a wizard and a speaker to boot, and I am both beautiful and deadly."_ the snake said calmly.

" _Err, I dunno. You won't fit in my cupboard with me and how am I to take you to school?"_ Harry questioned slightly, confused and bewildered about the snake who had wandered over to him.

Suddenly, Harry heard his cousins thunderous footfalls inside and paled thinking of the potential backlash his cousin could cause if he stumbled on the scene that Harry was now embroiled in.

" _Sorry_ ," he told the strange snake, and grabbed it, pushing it back underneath the brush," _Stay there just a moment, please._ " And then his wonderful cousin Dudley was standing by the back door sneering darkly at Harry.

Harry didn't think Dudley knew much in the way of sneering, Snape and even Draco could do it much better than the round beach ball he called his cousin. Dudley just looked constipated as he stormed angrily over to Harry.

"You're such a bloody freak! It's because of you Mum had to cancel my new game system! I hate you!" Dudley's fist came swing down faster than Harry expected to, and managed to land against the back of his head with a loud crack. Dudley let out a small yelp, but then changed his mind and grabbed Harry by his hair and started kicking him ruthlessly.

"Stop! Please! Stop!" Harry gasped loudly and tried to curl up into a ball but Dudley held fast to Harry's hair to prevent the movement. The large boys blows hurt of course, but they were nothing compared to the blows Vernon could deal out.

Fortunately, Dudley had the endurance of an old man and was soon hunched over breathing heavily. Despite the pathetic scene he made, Dudley mumbled out congratulations to himself for teaching the freak his rightful place, and fought for breath rapidly until he managed to puh himself up and waddle back inside of Privet Drive.

 _"That was disgraceful! You must allow me to bite him! For someone to treat a speaker in that manner!"_ The snake reemerged spitting mad at Dudley.

 _"You can't. He's my cousin and if anything bad happened to him I would be blamed."_ Harry told the snake sadly. _"He's not too bad I suppose. It's Uncle Vernon you need to watch out for... What is your name?"_

 _"Name?" the snake repeated confused. "What is that?"_

 _"Well, I suppose you could say it's a word in reference to yourself. My name is Harry. People often have more than one name though, so my full name is Harry James Potter._ "

" _Hmm... well you must name me, and I will live with you. Take me to your nest so I can protect you from the nasty smelling boy."_ The snake decided quickly _._

 _"I already told you, I don't have room in my cupboard. Now let me finish my chores before Aunt Petunia comes out here to find out why I'm taking so long."_

When Severus Snape apparated to Wisteria Walk and exited Mrs. Figgs backyard, he expected to walk down the street to Privet Drive and observe Harry Potter being indulged, spoiled, and -frankly- coddled near to death. After all, Harry was the savior of the wizarding world, the boy who lived, and all that garbage. It appeared that his hopes for the day were to go ignored.

Arabella had immediately pulled him inside for tea and cookies and he had been several minutes later to the Dursley household than he had intended. Still, the largest surprise was yet to come.

Instead of coddling he found on the first day of his observations a fact that made his mouth go dry and his hands become clammy. Harry was upon his knees in his backyard with a snake. Not only was the boy conversing with the animal as if he did it every other day, the boy seemed to have completely ignored that it was an inland Taipan snake he spoke to.

Severus had no idea how a snake native to Australia had ended up in Potter's backyard, but it probably had something to do with the boy's horrible luck and some inept muggle who had lost a huge venomous snake a few hundred miles from where it ought to be.

Merlin save them all from idiot muggles.

The boy ended up shoving the massive six foot snake away from himself, rising to his feet, and giving one last definite hiss to the Taipan before going inside. Severus had found himself actually holding his breath for most of the conversation since he had no way to identify what the boy was actually saying to the infernal creature, and he had no desire to reveal his presence on his first day of spying.

Beside he hated snakes, even if he was one, and the boy looked as if he was in little danger as he could speak to the reptile. He shuddered as the snake resumed its perch underneath the flowers. The fact that the boy could speak to them was distinctly dark and reminded him entirely too much of his service to the Dark Lord.

Severus watched the Dursley home for hours that Monday. The house left an insidious feeling in his gut. Potter did more chores around the house than anyone else. He didn't like watching an almost twelve year old prepare dinner with both ability and a practiced air around him. He didn't like watching Petunia snarl herself hoarse at the boy, and the double standard he observed between Harry and his older cousin was disturbing at best.

Vernon Dursley was the one who actually made him enter Privet Drive number four.


	5. Chapter 5

When he finally went inside, the cold air against his neck had brought back Harry's less immediate concerns: Hedwig and his school things. He had been worried about them, but unable to do anything at all about his Uncle, he hadn't tried to get to Hedwig. He doubted that Vernon had done anything at all to the bird as he always made blustering angry threats that he rarely carried out, and the owl had seemed perfectly fine in the shed when had checked on her, though perhaps peeved at being alone for so long.

Lost in his thoughts, Harry didn't notice the snake that slithered in behind him through the open back door and snuck into the area of the house that smelled the most like the boy.

Harry ached. He'd been cleaning since Aunt Petunia yanked him from the cupboard until ten minutes before his Uncle got home. He was still recuperating from the beating he had received only days before. The eleven year old boy now lay silent in his darkened cupboard, and was ruminating upon his life when he heard a near imperceptible hissing underneath his cot.

Both startled and confused, Harry peeked his head over the side, but unable to see in the darkness, reached for sound with his left hand. He nearly jumped when he felt the dry scales and was even more alarmed when the thing moved.

The snake uncurled itself from underneath the cot, glaring heavily at Harry. Or at least Harry supposed that the snake was glaring.

" _I was alone for so long!"_ the snake whined, " _I tried my hardest to remain wake but you were gone for ages."_

Meanwhile an abject expression of complete horror had taken over Harry's face. There was a snake in his cupboard. A snake. Perhaps Vernon would kill him this time, he thought terrified.

" _What are you doing here?_ " Harry asked whispering as quietly as possible to the snake. " _I told you I didn't have room for you in here!"_

" _I have decided that you will be my master! It would be an honor for any snake to stay with a speaker such as yourself, but I think I would be the best since I found you first!"_ the Taipan replied eagerly.

" _You don't understand,"_ Harry replied frustrated, " _I can't have a snake, I'm barely allowed to keep my owl here! If my uncle finds me talking to a snake, especially one six feet long and poisonous, he will kill me!"_

" _Nonsense,"_ the Taipan replied, " _and if he even attempts so, I will bite him and then it will no longer be a concern."_

" _You can't bite my uncle!"_ Harry's voice was becoming slightly louder despite being in parseltongue, matching the rising hysteria in his eyes as he imagined just what the man would do if he discovered the massive snake hiding in his cupboard.

The argument continued on for another fifteen minutes of increasingly louder hissing until Harry finally assented to allow the snake to remain as it had nowhere else to go and they were already locked in the cupboard anyway.

" _You said that your name was Harry?"_ asked the snake.

" _Yeah."_ Harry's reply was muffled slightly as he was now sitting atop his cot with his face buried against his arms, with his legs pulled up so the snake also had room.

" _I would like a name, Master Harry._

Harry breathed deeply. Naming was important, no matter what anyone said. Names held power and he automatically felt incredibly attached to the snake just because of the request. He looked up when the perfect name came to him.

" _How about Volos?"_

" _Perfect, Master."_

And then the door to Harry's cupboard slammed open and all hell broke loose.

Snape watched the boy clean and cook all Monday. Despite the fact that he'd promised himself to remain only an hour, he remained as he found his curiosity on a razor's edge. Why wasn't the Potter brat being coddled? Why did he have dark circles rounding his eyes, and torn and tattered clothing? Was he seeing bruise marks underneath the boy's clothing?

He tried to talk himself out of the ominous truth hovering at the back of his mind. He didn't want to believe it, couldn't believe it. This was Potter's brat, the boy who lived, the child who was born to make his life a living hell. But this was Lily's child as well. And underneath his disillusionment charm he could witness the boy without any of those titles.

It would have been enough for him to simply watch if he hadn't stayed until Vernon Dursley's arrival shook the house.

When he ran inside the man already had Harry's shirt off and a firm grip on his right wrist while the belt swung down over and over again against the boys back. And although Snape found that scene terrifyingly reminiscent of his own childhood, the old layers upon layer of scar tissue and open welts already on the boys back made him nearly stop in shock. Vernon's grip shifted, as he dropped Harry and began kicking him over and over again screaming about "a bloody huge snake," and "you freaks should get what you deserve!"

Severus had his wand out and a stupefy cast before the whale of a man could do more damage than he already had to the bloodied child lying on the floor wheezing.

"Harry?" Severus asked quietly as he tried to ascertain if the boy was still conscious despite Vernon.

"P-Professor Snape?" the boy stuttered out before coughing up heavy amount of blood. "Is that you? Check on Volos please! Don't leave him here!"

"Volos, Harry?" Severus found himself saying the boys first name again.

" He's downstairs, in the cupboard. I'll be okay, but check on him please! And don't leave him!"

And not a second later the boy passed out cold leaving Snape to figure out who Volos was.

The potion master had no illusion of Harry Potter ever returning to Privet Drive. Springing into action, he knew he had to bandage the boy as best he could. As the tattered remains of Harry's filthy garments would do little good, he ripped the expensive black robes he was wearing and wrapped the boy as best as he could. Severus then rushed downstairs with the boy in his arms to find that Petunia and the fat child had abandoned the house sometime during Harry's beating. Rushig to the cupboard had Severus coming face to face with Volos, and while the blood drained from his face, he was still horribly aware of the unconscious and bleeding boy in his care. A deep breath later, Severus Snape, Harry Potter, and a taipan snake were whisked away, far away from Little Whinging,


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Okay, for one I don't generally don't do author's notes because I don't like them myself, so I'll make them relevant if I do use them. Harry wasn't exactly in the best frame of mind when Snape rescued him, that's the reason Harry didn't have him get his stuff or bring Hedwig with them. Volos, was in Harry's mind, in more immediate danger than Hedwig. Also, while Volos is an inland taipan snake native to Australia, I don't imagine it would be too difficult for a pureblood with… connections to relocate a poisonous snake to the backyard of the boy who lived. Even if the death eaters cannot physically enter the property, there would be ways to get at Harry and I find an entire summer after being revealed to the wizarding public would be too good of a chance for an assassination attempt to be nonexisitent.

Also, Hedwig won't die and basically, I left her at the Dursley's so Severus would have a good reason to go back,(outside of cursing the Dursley's senseless) since the only other things Harry has that might make him wish to return are the photo album Hagrid gave him first year and the invisibility cloak his dad left him. But Hedwig will be retrieved next chapter, so I don't think anyone will complain too much. She isn't in her cage or anything so she's had plenty of … rats to eat.

Furthermore, Severus is always a complex character to write and I hope I can do him justice. He will not instantly like Harry, nor will he coddle him because of the abuse. Severus has been through what I deem similar and will know how to treat the abuse, but not Harry. We also finally stop with the "telling" way I've been writing and start with the showing, so chapters should bulk up a bit.

Finally, I apologize for the amount of time it took to get the last chapter up. I had my computer break and had to buy a new one. The draft was sitting on my usb plug waiting to be published for a while. :AN

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The first thing Harry knew upon waking was how warm he was. He kept his eyes tightly shut, trying desperately to recall what had happened. He remembered Volos, the door slamming open and Uncle Vernons red face, bright and shining with rage. Harry scrambled back into his cupboard as far as he could but the addition of the snake made that redundant as his uncle grasped him by the hair, and all he could shriek was a combination of,"Don't bite Uncle Vernon." and, "Please no, stop, please, don't." and -

Quick footsteps followed by,"Calm down, Harry. Open your eyes, Harry."

The voice sounded wonderfully calm and intelligent and everything else but if he opened his eyes the voice would go quiet and the warmth would go away and he would be alone and bloody and broken in his cupboard again. He wouldn't be able to take it and Volos would be dead or broken because the snake had tried to save him!

Suddenly, Harry felt his mouth forcefully wrenched opened and a disgusting substance forced in, and his mouth and nose plugged closed. Swallowing the substance in his rather blind panic, as he still refused to open his eyes, Harry felt a sudden, unexplainable calm descend upon him. The calm was so complete that he couldn't even be enraged that whoever he was with, whoever kept calling him Harry, whoever placed him in this wonderfully comfortable bed had potioned him with a calming draught.

"Okay, Harry, I need you to open your eyes so I can explain what's going on."

Feeling much more amenable to the voice, Harry finally conceded that no, he couldn't, and possibly shouldn't hold onto this nice calm feeling and should return to his dark and dreary existence of life underneath the stairs, and opened his eyes up to be promptly shocked speechless. He was lying sprawled across a bed bigger than even the ones at Hogwarts, in a faded brown room with bandages covering nigh most of his otherwise naked chest, and Severus Snape dressed like a muggle. The near hysteria that followed was almost enough to supersede the calm feeling that soaked into his very being.

Instead though, the near twelve year old rolled from the center of the comfortable bed until he hit the floor, jarring his broken ribs and groaning at the sharp pain. Still he continued rolling, though he reversed directions, and quickly ensconced himself underneath the bed Snape had put him in. The calm was like paralysis now, rooting his body to the spot and only barely masking the oceans of pain inside of him.

Severus looked down at the bed that the boy lay under, knees pulled to his chest, arms wrapped around them mumbling variations of "Please, I'm sorry." and "I won't do it again. Please!" he truly realized the severity of the problem.

In the back corner of his mind Severus had been hoping, against every shred of logic he possessed, that the boys abuse was a recent development. That maybe healing the boy wouldn't be as complex as everything else that included the Potter line it would be just as complex or even more so, because the savior of the world was just a broken beaten child and he, Severus Snape, was the only one available to do anything for him.

Groaning darkly,Severus made to get on his knees so he could extract the child from underneath his bed, but the crack of a house elf halted him. It was his elf, Dinky, and he was one of the most peculiar elves that Severus had had the courtesy to own. Dinky was two feet tall and well dressed, she enjoyed her work and living as Hogwarts most of the year. In fact, until Severus had acquired Harry, she had still been living at Hogwarts, helping with the excessive amount of cleaning the elves there had to do. Dinky though was most peculiar because she liked to mother Severus Snape and despite every other house elf fearing the very floor he walked on Dinky would not budge.

Her apparation caused a nearly swallowed scream to emerge from underneath the bed and another groan from Severus who looked at her waiting for whatever she had come to tell him of.

"Master Snape, Dumblydore be in the fireplace. He be wanting to comes through but I tell him no, so you must be goings to sees him." Dinky said sternly to her potions master.

"Watch him," he said to Dinky, pointing at the bed.

Severus nearly swore in frustration as he strode angrily towards the downstairs fireplace. He knew that Dumbledore would be calling to ask if Severus had seen or heard anything about Harry Potter since his unreported disappearance, and suddenly, a quite terrifying, horrifying idea struck him stock still. What if the venerable old headmaster, a man even he, Severus Snape the snarky bastard of Hogwarts dungeons trusted, knew what had been happening to the boy currently hiding underneath his bed? Severus almost as immediately discarded the idea, scoffing that Albus Dumbledore could do something so heinous, so morally wrong. Despite his reluctance to believe the thought, it would remain, hovering in the back of his mind, for months like a bad aftertaste ruins good food.

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"Just who I wanted to see, Severus , my boy. may I come through?" the old man peered questioningly through the fireplace at Severus

"What do you need Headmaster Dumbledore, I've done whatever you have asked of me for the summer, as of yet. Are you going to be needing my services for something more necessary than the Potter brat, or has my sole asset in life being a childminder?" he sneered back, as he often did when Dumbledore addressed him.

"Not at all, my boy. I would prefer to come through though, if you don't mind." Said the headmaster, eyes twinkling brightly.

"No sir." the twinkling dimmed. "I am very busy with potions work. I've almost devised a pregnancy preventative solution for consumption of a love potion, it would cause the ingestion of a love potion to temporarily leave a witch or wizard temporarily infertile, ."

"That's marvelous, my boy," Dumbledore commended, before turning serious," Severus, Harry has disappeared from Privet Drive. I need to know if you can look for him before something happens to the poor boy. His relatives are scared out of their wits claiming a 'tall terrifying man' appeared, ripping through the wards around Privet Drive, and stole the boy away after cursing them. I believe it might have been some of your… old crowd. Because of my suspicions, I was able to arrive before the obliviation squad, and managed to convince the Dursley's to readmit young Harry when he is found, and to restrain the obliviation squad from removing the incident from the Dursley's mind."

Severus schooled his face into an acceptable scowl before glowering darkly at the wizard through the hearth. "I don't know if you heard me, Headmaster, but I have extremely volatile, extremely dangerous potions brewing in my basement, I have no time to search for St. Potter, and rather or not I have time I have to wonder about the validity of your suspicions as to a Death eater, or even a supporter taking the boy."

"Severus, what do you mean?" the older man questioned, his features sagging. "Who else would take the boy who lived."

"Headmaster, the boy lives with near defenseless muggles, in the middle of suburbia. He has little protection outside of the wards, and no available witch or wizard to run to his defense should an attack take place on the premises. He and his relatives seem to have little lost love between them. When I visited a number of days ago, he seemed used to the tension between himself and his family."

Dumbledores eyes widened in confusion, until they darkened slightly with realisation. "Nonsense, my boy, Harry's relatives are good for the boy, just what he needs. I believe he was removed from the premises by a death eater who has evaded capture. If you are not willing, or unable to Severus, I mu-"

Unable to help himself, the potion master interrupted him ," Forget the family though, even if they had nothing to do with his 'disappearance' someone, unrelated to my... associates, from the wizarding world could have stolen him, or the boy could have simply run away. I refuse to simply give up my precious summer to search for someone who quite likely ran away from home in a pique of youthful idiocy. It's insanity when I'm this close to a breakthrough."

"Of course, Severus, I'm sorry for overstepping when I myself forced you to go only a month ago. I must be going Severu-"

"Headmaster, I assume I'm released from watching St. Potter since he has disappeared. Unless of course you wish me to watch his house?"

"No, no, no. Until I find the boy, Severus, you may do what you like for the summer, perhaps I'll have Arabella watch him after he is found, she said the boy was absolutely a dear . "

Dumbledore's head then disappeared from the fireplace and Severus stepped back grinning victoriously, barely noting that he was congratulating himself for keeping the Potter boy, as he walked back to where Harry was hiding.

Severus didn't really want to consider his reasons for keeping the Potter heir. It wasn't that he liked the boy at all, but the abuse was his justification, along with the slightest tiniest shred of despair that Albus could have been involved in something as disgusting as covering up child abuse. Albus had indirectly done it once before, ignoring Severus's pain as he built up James Potter, ignoring the infirmary documentation, ignoring the evidence before him because Albus didn't believe that a parent, or even a close relative would be capable of such violence. Especially against a child. Severus snorted. He should have seen it. Even if Dumbledore had known and had been concealing it, Severus should have known because he had been there with Tobias many times, and again with Slytherin after Slytherin. He shouldn't have been so blinded by his own hatred of Potter and should have looked into the eyes of an abused child, the eyes of his first and solitary love, and saved him from this.

Severus's smile faded and he sighed darkly, reaching his old bedroom to find Dinky laying on the floor in the center of the bedroom observing the child underneath the bed.

She turned to him when he entered saying,"Master Snape, guesty is crying strangely. He won't be coming out for Dinky to care for either so Dinky hads to be getting down to watch him. I offers to bring him sweets if he comes out, but he just cries harder. He is a very strange guesty. Not like Young master Draco at all"

"He is not strange Dinky." Severus stated calmly, "Just traumatised." And you shouldn't base your assumption of children off of either of them. Draco is monetarily spoiled, and Harry is… complex."

"Yous should be having children, Master Snape. Then I be seeing a normal child." She said grinning at him teasingly.

Severus laughed thickly, "I don't think any of my procreation would be described as normal either, Dinky. Besides, I would be requiring a woman for that sort of thing, and marriage doesn't seem anywhere near for someone like me. Now go prepare us something simple for dinner, In have a young boy to cajole from underneath the bed."

Dinky cracked away and then, Snape found himself on his hands and knees trying to peer through the sliver of light showing underneath the bed. He ended up oddly positioned but with a clear view of the cowering boy, knees tucked underneath his body, hands covering the back of his neck face turned towards Severus and his eyes open, yet unseeing and his mouth mumbling repetitions of words.

Severus watched closely, and felt his stomach sink in sorrow when he finally pieced together the"please, don't hurt me!" whispered to no one by a child, it seemed everyone, including himself, had either forgotten or ignored.

Severus felt the weight of Lily's anger falling against him then, and together with his own guilt they were screaming, you swore you would protect him! He found he had neither answer or defense for either.

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He can feel Severus looking at him, starting, and though he knows he's no longer at Privet Drive, he still feels as cornered. He feels the belt still as if it's embedded itself into his very skin and the broken ribs he has are screaming. He still feels Vernon's hand inn his hair dragging him from the cupboard, the fear he felt when Volos stood down from Vernon because all Harry would say was, "Don't hurt uncle Vernon!" Harry can't stop the thoughts though, he's so scared and so afraid and he doesn't know why because the logical part of his mind is saying no no no no no and it just won't stop. He just keeps on pulling himself together tighter despite the fact that his skin feels as if it's made of paper.

It's made worse by the calming draught Severus gave him, and he compares it to the feeling of standing stock still in front of an eighteen- wheeler. Fear and panic and calm all rolled into one big pile of emotion. The feeling of having been ripped senew from sinew, bone from muscle and nerve to open fire.

And then the soft monotone voice breaks past the panic, past the confusion, past the irritation and the pain and the rage, and pulls him closer. He can hear the same words over and over again, complex in their simplicity and pulling him forward like safety to a wounded animal.

"You are perfectly safe here, Harry."it says and Harry wants nothing more than for it to be completely and entirely true.

"You are perfectly safe here, Harry,"it repeats and Harry hears his name this time, and it nearly makes him cry. Nothing has made him cry in years.

"You are perfectly safe here, Harry" it continued and this time Harry flung himself at the voice and began to sob heartily when he reached it.

"There there, Harry," Severus Snape said again, "You are perfectly safe here."


	7. Chapter 7

A:N: Ummm….. Forgive me for taking so long to post again :) Leave reviews and I might find a bit more time to write. Again….sorry. If I'm not late chapter eight should be up on the twentieth or twenty-first. If I am late fill free to spam me til I post lol. Also, i don't have a Beta, so if anyone is interested in filling that role, please PM me. Also, this chapter got so long, I figured that I would put saving Hedwig from the shed in the next chapter. She's only been in there for three days at this point and Harry fed her the day he was taken. Plus there are plenty of rats for her to eat in there since he let her opened the cage.

Severus woke up very late that morning. His night had been rough because after he had calmed Potter down and fed the boy, he had barely slept. The few hours he had slipped into the abyss had been worse than since he had been a death eater. After an entire night plagued by nightmares, the normally caustic man was planning to be even more grouchy than he generally was, damn the small child upstairs and the large bird waiting for him when he finally emerged to into the downstairs makeshift dining room.

"What do you want, you bloody bird,"he growled out snatching the letter the great horned owl proffered regally. The potions master grumbled darkly as the bird settled itself onto the empty breakfast table, making itself comfortable, as he ripped open the letter. His eye's widened as he read, and he felt his fingers gripping into the parchment roughly and a scowl setting itself deeply into his jaw. He tossed the parchment down loosely and it fell down to the breakfast table as he moved to pinch the bridge of his nose.

His quiet condemnation of coincidences was then promptly interrupted by one of the very subjects of his ire. Severus opened his mouth, possibly to spew vitriol at the boy he had comforted only the night before when his mouth snapped shut at what the boy was carrying: an enormous platter of bacon, scrambled eggs, fried, fried mushrooms, buttered toast, sausages, and hash browns.

"I, uh, wanted to say thank you, sir…" Potter used one hand to fidget loosely with his oversized hole ridden shirt. "...for, you know, saving me…"

"I promise, Potter, rescuing you from your pathetic excuse of relatives had not been on my agenda either." he paused, " Where did you get this ridiculousness?"

"Get what ridiculousness, sir?"

"The food, boy." The boy flinched was near imperceptible, although Severus caught the reflexive action and nearly kicked himself. He wasn't supposed to verbally abuse the boy!  
Potter sat the food down at the table, and began rubbing the back of his neck as he stared down at the floor.

"I looked when I woke up sir, but you didn't have any food here, so I asked that thing where the money was so I could go buy some stuff. She told me I shouldn't, sir but I wanted to repay you for you saving me and since you… held me last night sir. So I told her I had your permission and when she didn't believe me, I told her it didn't matter because you were still asleep anyway, and she should just tell me where it is before I went to go find it and broke something."

"She told me where it was , and I went and got it and then I caught a bus to the shops. From their I decided that I had absolutely no idea where to go, or what you would even want so I asked Mrs. Gumpton, she said that was her name, at the bus stop where the grocery was. She said to follow the road and take a left. I did what she asked, but somehow got lost on my way to it since I was thinking about what I was going to cook."

"So I was scared and I couldn't figure out how I was going to get back, and so I, uh, wished myself to the shop."

"You wished yourself there?"

"With magic, sir. It isn't the first time I've done it, though it never happened when I tried it at the Dursley's."

Severus gripped his nose harder, as he gestured for the boy to sit and begin eating with him, before he asked, "So you made the food?"

"What? Oh, yes sir."

Severus nodded his head in acknowledgement before saying, "Two things, Potter. One, Dinky isn't a thing, she is a house elf and two, it's called apparition, Potter."

To which the boy cheekily replied,"Yes sir."

They ate the rest of the meal in silence.

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Laying on his bed, a half hour later, Harry found himself staring at the ceiling. He was still sore from his uncle's belt, although he hadn't wanted to complain to the potions master, so his neck was at an awkward angle as he lay on his stomach and tried to convince Volos that lying to the potions master was for the best.

" _He won't care, and I don't know if I could take that. Especially since he saved me from the Dursley's Volos! I didn't think that anyone would ever do that for me. And don't forget that he brought you home even though he didn't have to."_

" _Which is precisely why you should tell him, Master. He cares for you, even if you don't see it."_

" _I don't see why it should even matter to you Volos, it's not like speaking to snakes is rare or anything."_

If a serpent could lift an eyebrow in confusion, the snake in front of him did. Despite the odd expression on the snake's face, Harry missed the evident confusion as he dropped his face onto the bed at the light knock on his bedroom door.

Obviously knowing it was the potion master, the eleven year old yelled out a muffled, "Come in!"

Severus opened the door and Harry nearly groaned at the pinched expression on the Potion Master's face betraying the man's annoyance with whatever he had come to him.

"Sit up properly, Potter," The gruff man spoke hesitantly before sighing audibly and conjuring himself a straight backed chair. "We have something of import to speak of and however much I wish it hadn't come to necessitate measures such as these."

"I'll be frank, Harry." Professor Snape's voice softened considerably as he leaned forward before continuing."You are going to have two options. Either you will make me a very serious type of promise called an Unbreakable Vow or we will have to find somewhere else for you for the remainder of the summer."

He met the young boy's eyes."An Unbreakable Vow is very serious business, and I have explicit reasons for obtaining such a promise from an eleven year old, but the danger here Potter is how much you trust me to act in your best interest, because if you do not, for whatever reason I do not want you to take this option. Simply put, I can not disclose to you these reasons until after you have sworn the entire Vow in its completion. This is for your protection as well as mine. If you do not accept this option, circumstances will require me to wipe your memory for your own protection and to place you back into Dumbledore's hands." A dark look crossed the Professor's face.  
"This does not mean you will be returned to the Dursley's. While it would be much simpler for you to stay here until I have acquired enough information to competently ascertain your safety-"

"Yes, sir," Harry interrupted him,flashing him a quick grin, "I trust you sir, you probably care more about keeping me safe than anyone else I have ever met!"

"We will be in need of a third party for this to work, Mr. Potter." Severus warned. " They should be here shortly, within the hour. This is-"

"Serious business, sir, I understand."

"See that you do."

To a degree what Harry had said was true. He certainly did believe that Severus would keep him safe from the Dursley's, but the man was rough and mean. Harry knew people were multifaceted, and Severus had proved that and more with his difference in behavior from the school year and now, but he so wanted someone to just like him.

Not for something that he supposedly did, like saving the wizarding world from the darkest of dark wizards, not for protecting the philosopher's stone from the same evil megalomaniac, but for just being Harry. Harry supposed now that that was why Ron hadn't owled him yet. The boy had enough family that he didn't have to think about having someone to care for him or to love him or even where his next meal was going to come from.

He wanted that. So desperately that it hurt sometimes, so badly that his chest felt empty and his stomach decided to pretend that it was empty. So he smiled at Severus and kept him teeth firmly clenched because even though the man in front of him may have taken him away from his abusers and held him while he cried, it was so much less painful to believe that the man still disliked him, so much less painful to brush himself off after a beating and say, "I was expecting it anyway."

Like the Dursley's always said no one wanted a freak.

The doorbell rang at exactly twelve o'clock that morning. Professor Snape was the one who answered it while Harry sat swinging his feet back and forth at the dining room table, counting backwards from six hundred to stop himself from listening to the hurried whispers of the two adults. He had just hit four hundred and seventy three when a harried blonde woman stepped lightly into the room. Professor Snape followed quickly behind and glared when the woman laughed.

"Certainly don't like to do these things by halves, do you Severus. " She spoke quietly rubbing her hands together before she withdrew her wand. When she gestured for Harry to withdraw his own, his expression became confused until Severus reminded him quietly of the wards around Spinner's End.

Blushing, Harry pulled out his wand and Professor Snape stepped forward, drawing his own wand before stopping to explain. "I will need you to kneel, Mr. Potter. Now I will be the bonder for this and you will be giving your vow to... Nevermind. Be assured that she is paying a debt of equal magnitude, " He shot her a glare, and she adopted a stunned expression for a second. "Please be aware that once this is started, it cannot be stopped. If you have any doubts about the validity of my claim or the necessity of this action we can stop now."

"I'm ready, sir." Harry said without missing a beat.

Severus's lip curled back as he raised his wand, nodding at the floor for the two to kneel in front of each other.

"Will you, Harry Potter, keep my son, Draco's, presence at Spinner's End secret forever.

"I will." a red wire of light fell from Severus's wand to their conjoined hands, hovering around the binding ominously, as Harry's mouth nearly fell open realizing that the woman in front of him was Narcissa Malfoy.

"And will you speak nothing of this meeting, of this bonding, of this day, and if we were ever to meet again, it would be as is we had never met before.

"I will."

"Will you Harry Potter, help to protect my son from whatever darkness his father, Lucius, seeks to summon, and guard him from his own foolishness." The Potions Master hissed audibly at the third addition to the Vow. There was nothing left to do but agree. The vow could not be stopped now. Harry spoke feeling vaguely ill… protecting Malfoy from his own stupidity would be a daunting task. He did not want to agree, almost every fiber of his rational mind was screaming for him to reject the Vow, but Professors Snape's earlier warning hung heavy at the forefront of his mind and he bit down on the protests."I will."

The red wire entwining both of their wrists sunk down to the flesh burning into the skin and scalding underneath the muscle and into their bones. The magic of the ritual healed them but the pain caused the young boy to fall dead weight to the floor, all but ignored by the two adults now arguing.

"That was not agreed upon, Narcissa!"Severus was enraged, he did not like being manipulated or conned, especially by someone he generally had faith in.

"He defeated the Dark Lord as a child and half of the world calls him their savior Severus! What is honor to the life of my son! What is a measly binding and an agreement made between two children when my son can have protection from and for both sides! What isn't worth me giving him a choice! Lucius is up to something Severus and I am terrified it will begin to affect my son in some way. Please keep him safe from this!"

"You have made a fool of me in my own house! Draco will become Lucius even if I bring him here and care for him as you know I do! Having the boy who lived sworn to protect him will do nothing. This is just another attempt at one upmanship between us again, Cissy!"

"You swore you would never call me that again, Severus!" Her face had red blotches of anger molting it.

"And you swore not to take advantage of the young impressionable boy I already had staying in my home! You agreed no subservience, nothing you wouldn't want Draco forced into his contract!" Severus was in a rage his normally dour demeanor replaced by a snarling man with less wit than anger.

"You-you wouldn't." she spluttered realizing immediately what Severus was saying.

"I wasn't until someone put a Subservience Vow on the savior of the wizarding world after specifically promising that they wouldn't, against a Life Debt. You are lucky you are still alive." he growled. "Whatever Draco's vow is, it will be equal to that which you demanded from Mr. Potter. "

As if saying his name had broken the spell, Severus and Narcissa remembered the unconscious boy on the floor and sighed. "I will put him in bed. Bring Draco in and tell him what he will be agreeing to, but not to whom he will be. I don't want him resisting the Vow." He said to the Lady Malfoy before scooping up the small child and carrying him upstairs.

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Harry woke up on the morning of June Twenty-fourth with a splitting headache, and the sound of light snoring in his ears. He groaned lightly and began trying to piece together the events of the night before. He remembered Narcissa and her making him promise to help to protect and guard Draco. At first, Harry's feelings upon remembering this confused even him but the he recognised the feeling for what it was.

Grief.

There was no one on earth who would sacrifice their own well being over him. In fact, the only people that seemed did live on earth wanted to use him, to hurt him, or to kill him. He was alone.

Or not so much, since he realized he had been awake for at least ten minutes and the snoring still hadn't stopped. His eyes snapped open wide and he sat up abruptly in the bed. The first thing he noticed was that his room was somehow much much bigger than it had been the night before and now was sporting another bed. Inside of that bed was a boy with blond hair and Harry felt his heart sink deeply into his chest.

It was definitely Malfoy. And if that wasn't bad enough, the other boy appeared to have woken up at the sound of Harry bolting upright in bed.

Severus had slept much better the preceding night. In fact, he had slept so well that one might have second thoughts about who they were referring to. He had two reasons for sleeping well last night. The first was exhaustion. He had, after all, participated in two draining Unbreakable Vows on two or three hours of sleep, and the second had been the dreams themselves.

They had reminded him of a certain problem he had left when he had retrieved Harry, and after all, the boy had begged him the very day he had woken up to rescue his beloved owl. He smirked nastily at the excuse and took a particularly large bite out of his toast. The Dursley's would be dealt with quickly, efficiently, and would never touch the boy again, damn Voldemort, Dumbledore, and anyone else who wanted to harm him. An earsplitting crash erupted out of the blue and he found himself setting his breakfast down, mourning his good mood. He stood abruptly from the table, pushing his chair back and taking the stairs two at a time. Severus thought he had been spending too much of his time running around in the last couple of days.

He forcibly slowed himself down, stopping outside the only bedroom in time to hear the muffled yell of a charging child, and Draco's young voice yelling out, "Well at least my parents aren't dead, Potter," the sound of flesh hitting flesh and then absolute silence.  
Severus chose that moment to enter the room and found a fearful and slightly befuddled Draco standing by the bed. When the boy heard the door open, the first words out of his mouth were, "I didn't mean to!"  
The Potions Master sneered down at the blond boy snarling out," I highly doubt that you meant to cause this reaction, Mr. Malfoy, but Mr. Potter is highly volatile right now. I did not place you in this room last night so you could aggravate him immediately after waking up."

"I already said I didn't mean to."

"Intentions often mean nothing, Mr. Malfoy. Now where is Mr. Potter."

"He's in the closet."

Severus sighed running a hand across his forehead. "And might I inquire where whatever was broken has been stowed."

"I didn't mean to, Severus. I just got angry when he wouldn't stop staring at me. I threw a picture frame at him. It didn't hit him sir, it shattered against the wall, but he said I was being a 'snobby, rich prat' and I told-"

"I do not need a play-by-play Draco, just an answer."

"He might have stepped in the glass sir, so he was bleeding and I was mad sir, and I told him that I at least had parents who could spoil me, and he was just some stupid orphan trying to antagonise his betters. He went weird then… he started apologizing, over and over and over again." Draco finished mumbling and glaring at the floor.

"Draco, I need you to understand something. Mr. Potter is not who you think he is, and while both your mother and I have made allowances for you to remain here over the course of the summer, I need you to attempt to at least remain civil with him. Obviously, the two of you sharing a room would not have worked out. I will be expanding the closet at the other end of the hall to be the same size as this room was last night."

"Sir, would you please explain his... reaction."

Severus glared at the boy before his lips pulled back against his teeth and he intoned, "No, that is explicitly Mr. Potter's right, just as it is your right to explain to him the Vow you took last night."

Draco's mouth fell open to refute that statement, but Severus cut him off once again. "You each made a similar Vow Mr. Malfoy, I will not be explaining to you the reason we worded the vow as we did, but if you must blame someone for your Subservience, I would direct that to your mother rather than myself. Despite the fact that I did indeed word the Vow, every line was previously agreed to by your mother and I. Now, go downstairs, Draco. I have a young Mr. Potter to cajole from the closet."

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Harry felt oddly pathetic that evening while eating dinner. He knew that Malfoy had seen him lose it, and if that was embarrassing enough, Volos had finally reappeared from his 'hunting trip', as the snake called it. Harry didn't really understand some of the snakes mannerisms, but he supposed that was understandable. Even if he was speaking the same language, he and Volos were different species and a lack of understanding was, well, understandable.

After dinner, exquisitely prepared by Dinky, Harry went upstairs to avoid the near constant complaints Draco seemed to spew. Since the other boy had woken up, it seemed as if the only thing that he did was complain be it on the inferior beds, house size, or 'idiotic help'. If Harry wasn't imagining things, he figured that even Professor Snape was getting seriously irritated with his godson.

That was another thing Harry had learned recently. The Potions Master was the blond ponces godfather. Suddenly the other boy getting away with anything and everything and making brilliant potion grades made complete sense.

" _You are thinking too hard master. Your face is going to get stuck like that if you keep screwing your face up like that."_ Volos snickered as he peered at the boy from the bed.

" _I've been thinking, Volos."_ Harry replied flopping down onto the bed. " _I was thinking about coincidences. I don't think that I really believe in them. You know what I mean, right?"_

" _Not really, Master. But I don't suppose that I have to understand what your thinking for it to make sense."_ Volos began winding himself up the post frame of the bed before continuing. " _Do you mean something like becoming the first serpent familiar of a speaker you were commanded to bite?"_ Volos replied blithely ignoring the confused expression on Harry's face.

" _You mean you were sent to kill me!"_ Harry hissed shocked with the snake in front of him, pushing himself away from the bed.

" _I was, but I decided not to when I learned you were a speaker. The waste would not be worth it, no matter what I was promised. Besides, I have become your familiar. Killing you would be cowardly."_ The Taipan concluded definitely.

" _We can't say anything to Severus about this, Volos."_ Harry replied after a moment. " _He would make you leave, or kill you or something. I can't keep losing people. I just can't."_

Harry buried his head in the pillow, quickly losing himself to the drama of the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N.** Holy moly this is sooo late... Ummm woah, I never thought that I would get this written. I've been sick and schools caught up with. Sorry. It's really short too.

* * *

The front door swung closed behind Severus loudly several hours after Harry had laid down, but he was unable to stop from thinking. He rolled out from underneath the blankets and reached down to the foot of the bed where Volos liked to sleep. The snake was curled up in messy loops, his eyes closed and Harry stared at him as he scratched down his back.

Harry missed Hedwig he thought dully as he stared out the window at the darkened sky. He had not had her long and she had spent most of the time he had had her in the school owlery, but he had hoped over the school year that he could talk to her about the Dursley's. When Hermione and Ron had just never owled him, he'd wished that he could confide in her. He hated that he had forgotten her, had left her alone with the disgusting muggles. Saying it like that made the word feel dirty, he thought iddly. Muggles.

A sharp knock resounded against his door pulled him out from his thoughts, and he whispered out a hushed, "Come in."

The door creaked open revealing the blonde boy from across the hall. Draco stepped forward slowly, as if he wasn't quite sure whether or not he had really been invited in even though they both know Severus has left them. They both heard the banging of the front door as he left.

"I wanted to say I'm sorry, Potter." Draco started off slowly. "I never apologized for scaring you, yesterday. I wanted to actually say it… I wanted to talk though. About your reaction, and some other things."

Harry didn't look up from Volos, who was still lying quietly on the bed curled loosely, his eyes shut firmly in what seemed to be sleep."What do you want to talk about then."he asked lightly as he continued scratching lightly at Volos.

"I'm going to tell you a story." Draco said, sitting down on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest, fingers pulling at the ends of his pajama bottoms.

"Once upon a time when a Mother was very young, she was not a mother. She was one of three sisters who belonged to a very, very old very, very powerful family. This big family did not put much stock into their three daughters because they were simply daughters and not sons. But these three daughters did have a very important function." he paused sneering."They could marry."

"As this was their sole asset, it was obvious from the time of their birth that they would be promised to very wealthy suitors to increase their families profitability and to breed heirs of great power. As the third daughter, though, it was traditional for betrothal contract to be filled for both of her elders sisters first, and at this time impressive pedigrees were uncommon because many families had died off in the war with a very powerful man named Grindelwald. So her mother and father decided to wait until their youngest child was slightly older before finding a suitable match with a young man by the name of Prince. Meanwhile, the eldest two girls grew and grew and became women."  
"By the time the eldest daughter was sixteen, her suitor had become infatuated with her, the older heir of Lord Abraxas, and was a young blonde man with gray eyes. She was very disinterested in him and his money, and upon the age of seventeen she ran away with another, unsuited, man. The families second daughter proved to be a disappointment as well. When she was very young, the families curse of insanity had poisoned her away. Despite being hidden away long enough for her marriage to be completed, she would never produce any children. The third daughter seemed to be the family's salvation though. With her incomplete marriage contract- to the half blood Prince who had reemerged into the wizarding world several years after the near extinction of the family- canceled she was forced into a marriage with the man who deeply coveted her estranged sister."

"This man was a full two years her senior, and so she opted out of taking a sixth and seventh year. This was to formalize the marriage, and to hide the fact that she was already growing with child. She asked the man she almost married to help her keep from giving birth before the nine month period had ended, and so the child became a woman became a mother. The baby was born in February, and the mother became afraid for her child. Many times, because there was a war going on and the child's father was a part of this war, was a deep part of the war. The woman feared for her sister, because her husband named the child something so peculiar that made her weep. Her husband named the child Draconis after her sister, who even now he still yearned for, Lucius for the blood he bore, and Malfoy to remind her of the man she had married. And she hated him. She hates him now just as much as the day I was born." The blonde stopped abruptly.

"I know what I am to my mother and father." He started again. "To my father I am an obligation and to my mother, I symbolize what she could have had with someone else."

"With Prince?" Harry asked quietly.

Misjudging the nature of the the question Draco scowled at the other boy," He was not a willing participant. His grandfather attempted to marry him off, though he died before he could manage it. Severus never even met the man as he refused to associate with muggle filth, which he definitely saw Severus as."

"Severus?," Harry questioned confused. "What do you mean?"

"Severus is the last of the Prince line, but his mother ran off with a muggle and produced him. The half-blood Prince, although he didn't get to keep the name or inherit much of anything from his grandfather. When the contract was canceled, he removed Severus from his will. He couldn't stand muggles or anyone of dirty blood."

"Then why did he try to marry him off to a pure blood?"

"Better to breed out the rotten blood than take more of it in, Potter. It's your turn."

"What?" Harry sat staring at the blonde nearly stunned.

"You get to tell me a story now, preferably as honest as mine was. Severus gave me the idea earlier when I asked him how to get to know you better since we are kind of stuck together."

"Stuck together?"

"The Vow's Potter. Severus said we each swore something of a Subservience Vow to each other. We have to get along somewhat to make sure we fulfill the requirements of the Vow." Harry groaned. He had barely even thought of the vow since making it the previous night, but he recognized the approach threat Draco was using. It was mutual exchange of potentially damaging information.

He also saw what Professor Snape got out of having this conversation take place, which was having Harry talk about the abuse. He had been ignoring the subject every time the older man had tried to gently bring it up. Maybe talking about it with Draco would be easier.

"Fine. But you better not interrupt me, Malfoy. Where should I start. " he said glancing back down at Volos who was still hidden quite well in the dark blankets on the bed.

"Wherever you want. It is your story after all."

"I suppose it is." Harry chuckled darkly before composing himself and laying back into the bed, his left hand falling against Volos..

"When I was very small, all I knew was darkness. My first memories are of my darkened cupboard and huddling at the floor by the door crack terrified of the encompassing darkness. That is until Aunt Petunia hit me in the head with the door enough times to realise what I was doing. Then she had Uncle Vernon install foam piping on the bottom of the door frame."

"This was years after the had installed the padding on the cupboard walls and extra insulation inside walls. Not to mention the locks on the cupboard door. That was when I was very young, when I first came to live with the Dursley's. "

"Sometimes my Aunt would remember to let me out so I could use the bathroom. Other times I had a bucket. When I was on strict punishment they would take the bucket away and have me in there for days. I don't think they actually started abusing me until-"

"Potter that is abuse." Draco interrupted firmly.

"No, that is neglect not abuse. And you said you wouldn't interrupt. Do you want me to stop?"

"No. You obviously need to talk about this.

Harry took a deep breath before continuing. "I didn't learn my own name until I started Primary school. Instead I learned how to cook full course meals and prepare desserts. I learned how to keep an entire house clean, how to do laundry." he met Draco's eyes, "I learned how to be quiet, how to hide, when to cower and when to beg for it to stop."

" They didn't start hitting me until I started showing magic. And when I did, it was terrifying. I was accustomed to being smacked around by the age of nine, but it was absolutely nothing to the first time Uncle Vernon thrashed me." Harry stopped abruptly, having almost forgotten that Draco was is in the same room listening to his every word.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore." Harry said pulling the covers over his head and revealing the massive Taipan lying in his bed to the unaware boy on the floor.

Severus made his way through the rows and rows of identical houses, ignoring the dead silence of the street as dragon hide boots clicked resoundly. He counted the numbers on the front of each house along Wisteria Walk, despite the fact that he knew the exact house he was going to. Privet drive number four.

He knew he wasn't a nice man. Severus had known that since before he understood what _nice_ was. Since before he had met Lily Evans and knew what _devotion_ meant. Despite that though, Severus understood very well what kinds of vile thoughts could affect child abusers, how disgusting they were, and most importantly, how nothing would make the abuser stop unless they were completely removed from the vicinity of any possible victim. Severus knew. He had experienced his own father's abuse until the man had finally died only a few days after Severus had initially joined the death eaters.

Severus also knew how to murder. He had done it, after all, killing his father and many, many subsequent others while in his service to the Dark Lord. There were few deaths he had truly relished, truly enjoyed carrying out though, and his father was one of those few. He had had to think about it, honestly and truly consider every possible angle before committing to anything regarding the Dursley family. It was why he had waited as long as he had to revisit the family.

He wanted their punishment to hurt, to make them simply, unforgettably irrevocably miserable. He wanted them to burn.

Severus knew though that the desire to kill them was foolish. For some inexplicable, now horrifying reason, the headmaster had chosen to shield the most disgusting family of muggles from true harm when he placed Harry Potter with them nearly twelve years ago. If Severus wished to take retribution for what the small boy now in his care had suffered it would have to be… discrete.

Severus smiled darkly. Discrete he could definitely do.

Stepping out from Privet Drive Number Four at three in the morning, Severus scraped his boots off against the concrete and lifted his left arm higher so the owl gripping tightly to his forearm could get a decent amount of lift. The snowy owl hooted loudly in gratitude and flew off to find her master. Severus had also acquired a large trunk, which he had simply shrunk and placed into his pockets, but despite this, he was obviously an odd sight to the suburban area, even without the owl.

Disregarding this, especially as Severus himself could care less about any of these muggles, made his way down the street in an increasingly sour mood. His discoveries within the disgusting place had definitely shed some light on Dumbledore's manipulations. It was very simple.

There were no wards on Privet Drive Number Four.

Actually, he could tell that there had been wards very recently in place, but it seemed as though someone had removed them. Perhaps even yesterday. And in the fibers of those remaining echos of powerful blood wards, Severus something that had made his heart almost stop beating from the very shock of it. It was an old spell. An ancient curse that fed on magic, could stint it, rot it and permeate deeply every vessel of a wizard's body. But if it didn't… The effects would be astonishing. Power that was not broken, under the potestatem truncas curse would florish, into something much greater than the simple power of an everyday witch or wizard. Severus still did not want to jump to conclusions, and he had trusted Dumbledore for so long, but he could not see any way to defend his long time mentor.

It was on that note that Severus apparated back to Spinner's end.


End file.
